So, this is making the rounds on Twitter at the moment, and it seems it has caused quite the uproar. This article makes the case that using LaTeX for typesetting scientific papers is costing the tax payers lots of extra money, based on a study where researchers were asked to copy as much of another scientific text as possible in 30 minutes. I cannot even begin to stress what a load of bullsh*t I think this is, for a few reasons. So, here goes... First off, for the article itself, it is highly doubtful that an even remotely accurate measure of scientific productivity would be the re-typing of another article under time duress. The creation of a scientific paper progresses in many stages, for example in the field of experimental physics, where Im active, an idea has to be formulated, feasibility tested, experiments performed, data analyzed, graphics produced... _after_ these, and other steps, the results and graphics are summarized over, usually, something like 4-8 A4 pages. Provided you already took care and did the preceeding work, the time it actually takes to write these pages is negligible in comparison to the other steps, rendering the tax argument irrelevant. Second, the article bases its findings on a sample size of 40 researchers from different fields. To this I have to say that this constitutes a way too small sample group for any kinds of reliable statistics, especially since the group was segmented in four sub-groups (word experts/novices and LaTeX experts/novices). Comparing the occurance frequency between these four sub-groups further reduces the statistical significance of the work, even though its plausible that someone writing (presumably) in a non-wysiwyg editor would make more mistakes than someone who did. Third, the article makes the case that writing up your results in a timely fashion is more important than the _much_ improved readability which LaTeX, another highly controversial, and in my opinion, completely false premise. Why on earth would you want to write an article which is less readable than it could be? Finally, for the Twitter reactions; many word fans have commented that word catches so many spelling mistakes and it allows me to use track changes between multiple authors etc. Well, guess what, thre are track changes packages for LaTex, and numerous spelling and grammar checkers, all free to download and incorporate. In addition, LaTeX will automatically keep track of your references, citations, figure labels, table captions, tables of content etc. etc., all areas where word is lacking - to say the least. In conclusion, I find it almost offensive that such a paper, can get published in a respectable journal employing peer-review, even if its an open access one, using questionable methodology. Unfortunately, it may well have many unwanted consequences for the people who work in research, since such papers often tend to grab the attention of politicians and administrators, eager to impose percieved time-and-money-saving measures. plosone.org/article/authors/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0115069 Andreas Lindblad
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 16:16:13 +0000
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